Cougars making four straight trip to 2-A championship match

Croatan senior Greyson Millis (top) closes in on a pin of Topsail’s Dylan Blake during their 113-pound match in the NCHSAA 2-A dual team East Regional finals, which the Cougars won 43-25 Thursday to advance to the state championships for the fourth straight season. Croatan will play host to Newton-Conover on Saturday.

By Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Published: Friday, February 15, 2013 at 10:00 AM.

The 138-pound junior pinned Brandon Mendoza 40 seconds into the second period to assure the Cougars will have a shot at winning their third state title in four years after a 43-25 victory over East Central Conference rival Topsail in the East Regional final.

Earlier, the Cougars (32-4) beat Cornith Holders 38-35 in a match that wasn’t as close as the final score since Croatan, with the match clinched, forfeited the last three matches to prepare for the Pirates (32-8).

“It’s exciting,” coach David Perry said. “But when you’re the favorite it’s almost like you’re relieved. The first year we won it was ecstatic. The second year we weren’t really favored, so we were the underdogs, so we were ecstatic.

“Last year if we’d won, we’d been ecstatic — we were the underdogs. This year we’re the favorite, and everybody’s gunning for us. So you’re just kind of like let’s get it over with. Thank goodness we got it over with.”

Croatan, which lost to Piedmont in the finals last year after beating the Panthers for the title the previous two seasons, will play host to Newton-Conover (42-5) on Saturday for the title. Newton-Conover, the No. 1 seed out of the Catawba Valley Conference, beat Thomasville 36-29 and then Piedmont 36-27.

The 138-pound junior pinned Brandon Mendoza 40 seconds into the second period to assure the Cougars will have a shot at winning their third state title in four years after a 43-25 victory over East Central Conference rival Topsail in the East Regional final.

Earlier, the Cougars (32-4) beat Cornith Holders 38-35 in a match that wasn’t as close as the final score since Croatan, with the match clinched, forfeited the last three matches to prepare for the Pirates (32-8).

“It’s exciting,” coach David Perry said. “But when you’re the favorite it’s almost like you’re relieved. The first year we won it was ecstatic. The second year we weren’t really favored, so we were the underdogs, so we were ecstatic.

“Last year if we’d won, we’d been ecstatic — we were the underdogs. This year we’re the favorite, and everybody’s gunning for us. So you’re just kind of like let’s get it over with. Thank goodness we got it over with.”

Croatan, which lost to Piedmont in the finals last year after beating the Panthers for the title the previous two seasons, will play host to Newton-Conover (42-5) on Saturday for the title. Newton-Conover, the No. 1 seed out of the Catawba Valley Conference, beat Thomasville 36-29 and then Piedmont 36-27.

The match time for the title showdown will be announced today.

“I’m real excited to go again,” said McGrath, who transferred to Croatan from Southwest two years ago. “It was great. We really wrestled good tonight.”

McGrath, who is now 52-7 this year, tied it at 2-2 with a takedown just before the end of the opening two-minute period and then quickly took command in the second. Asked what he was thinking about knowing he needed only a decision, McGrath said:

“I wrestled the kid two times before. The first time I did really good against him, the second time I got caught with something in the conference (tournament) finals. I won by a decision, but he caught me at the very end. So I was out for blood this time. I didn’t want it to happen this time.”

The match started at 170, and Andrew Colborn got it off to a strong start for the Cougars with an 11-1 major decision win over Eric Thigpen. But after Jonathon Rigsby lost in triple-overtime to Topsail’s Joseph Sculthorpe, the Cougars trailed 12-10.

But Ben Skiba picked up a five-point tech fall win at 23-8 over Catherine Herring at 106, followed by a pin by Greyson Millis just 47 seconds into his 113 match and an 11-2 decision by Alex Bray at 120 for a 25-21 lead for the Cougars.

“We kind of knew we were going to win the next three baring some major upsets,” Perry said. “We knew 26 would be a tossup, and then we thought 32 would be a tossup. But Austin Meaney made sure that wasn’t a question.”

After Topsail picked up a 6-5 decision at 126, Croatan sophomore Austin Meaney (25-27) pinned senior Johnny Deveaugh (40-8) with 52.1 seconds left in the third period to give the Cougars a 31-15 lead with four matches left.

McGrath then sealed the win.

“It’s exciting,” Perry said. “We knew Topsail would make some moves and try to do some things, and some of our young kid stepped up. Austin Meaney got a huge pin; pinned the kid in the conference tournament. The kid’s state ranked…, and then Brody went out and took care of business.”

But there’s still some business to finish, although the Cougars were certainly happy to be back in the finals, which for Millis, a senior, must seem like a birthright.

“I can’t explain it right now,” he said. “I’ve been here four years and we’ve been in the finals four years. Last year we took an upset. But this year we’re coming back, we’re back strong and we’re coming back hard, and we’re going to bring it home.”